Do you ever "manage" your spouse?
8 years ago
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- 8 years ago
- 8 years agolast modified: 8 years ago
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What do you hide from your spouse?
Comments (35)CanGrow - these posts were made with tongue firmly planted in cheek. We are not a deceptive, conniving, or greedy group of people. We are gardeners who love growing and nurturing plants - most of us find it very rewarding to see our hard work bloom beautifully, and most of us have spouses that really do encourage us and appreciate what we make. Sometimes we go a bit overboard, or get a bit silly, but who hasn't done that once or twice. At the end of a long winter we sometimes need a good laugh and we know we can joke with others that know us and understand our obsession with plants. I'm sorry that you did not see the humor in these posts, but if you get to know us a bit better, hopefully you will see that your comments are not an accurate description of us. BP...See MoreWhat to do if your spouse isn't on the wagon?
Comments (7)Cookie - I was in the same boat last year with the only difference that my husband supported the organic decision and we got his and her matching weedhounds. I aerated and seeded last Fall rather than in the Spring - so I could be more sure that the grass would grow and the crabgrass and nutsedge would be dying off. My idea was to give the grass a head start for the next Spring. It made a huge difference this year. The crabgrass is virtually all gone and the nutsedge is less, and somehow doesn't look as bad against grass as it did against crabgrass. If I can make half as much progress again this year I'll be very pleased. And just think, if I keep it up long enough I might be done with nutsedge too! :) Now that's wishful thinking for you! My neighbors are slowly converting and maybe your DH will too. This Spring both sides asked what I was doing that was working so well. Maybe getting a foot up on the weeds this Fall will help your case. Good luck!...See MoreNever, ever do these two things with your spouse
Comments (31)It is physically painful for me to watch dh try to paint. I can't bear to even think about it. Imagine a man who has good bearing and sense (I said he has them, not that he always uses them) suddenly going slack-jawed, slumped, one hand in a pocket (it drives me crazy to see someone with hand/s in a pocket) and smearing a paint brush over, and over, and over, the same area until it's a sticky, lumpy mess. He makes a simple task so much work. I love to paint. I spend hours on prep; removing everything (nails, electrical plates, lighting fixtures). I clean, and Swiffer, and tape. I put down plastic sheets and tape them to the floor. I set up my paint station with everything I could possible need laid out on the stand like surgical instruments. Then the next day I begin the painting. I use primer; I cut in, and do the "W" with the roller, apply thin coats, and am through in no time at all. I'll brag; I'm a damn fine painter. It's just that I go slowly and spend far more time with prep and staging than I do in the actual applying of the paint. He wants to grab a can of paint and start smearing. I am the painter in the house. He will, after I've done all the prep, sometimes help with the roller parts, but I have to keep reminding him to not go over the area that already has paint. He can't "see" how it pulls up. So, I do the painting or hire a helper. The one lady that does the best work, even better than mine, is 72. Watching her paint is like seeing poetry. I love her to death. I do the fetch and carry for her, clean her brushes, fix her lunch, and learn at the feet of the master! So, never, ever try to paint with a husband. God made Man; then he made Woman. He made them attractive to one another. Then he sat back and had a good, long chuckle....See MoreHow do you manage your trash?
Comments (14)With waste baskets and small recycling bin in every room, including halls. Baskets are collected and dumped into trash cans the day before trash collection eve (my task). That night DH hoists the trash cans in the front bucket of the tractor and carries them out the driveway to the public road where recycling and trash are stowed in their respective automatically tip-able containers required in our town. Kitchen waste works this way: Compostables: go directly in covered casserole (banana peel between meals) or open bowl on counter during meal prep or large pail during canning/freezing projects. End of the day everything is taken out behind the barn and dumped on the open compost pile. Every week (during non-freezing weather) I fork about in the pile and every other week I paw at it with the small back hoe or f/e loader bucket to aerate and add more materials (grass, chippings, manure, etc.) There's no such thing as too much compost here. Recyclable stuff (cans, bottles, paper, tinfoil, plastic food containers, cardboard): goes in large covered(we have pets and even washed containers excite their curiosity) waste basket in pantry. It is dumped, when full, into recycling bins in the barn, pending weekly trash night. (Much to the delight of raccoons and skunks who regularly "inspect" my recycling in order to ascertain if I am complying with the requirement that it be washed clean.) We have mixed stream recycling here, so no separating is required. Non compost, non-recyclable is broken into two areas: food-based grossities (meat scraps and bones, primairly) are kept in a plastic bag-lined, covered container in the freezer door. When bag is full it is tied closed and dumped in the trash can the night before pick up in the wee hours of the following morning. For other non-recyclable stuff: broken glass, light bulbs, bottle caps, food-soiled packaging (plastic wrapping over bacon, for example), etc., we keep a small covered trash step-can in the kitchen. When we do the kitchen it will migrate (I think) to a bin under the sink, accessible from both sides of the narrow (27") prep island. Or maybe I'll keep the can, but put it on rollers so it can be kicked around kitchen easily. Dunno, yet. It has to be covered, though. We keep covered trash cans outside (or in deep winter in the attached wood-storage room - this is an old farmhouse with that kind of space). The main amount (in volume and weight and stinkiness) of our trash is cat litter. We have ten cats so it's at least three twenty pound boxes per week of clumping litter, plus some Yesterday's News for the Finicky Ones. Litter box gleanings are carried out to trash can every day. (I can cheat in "normal" winters and avoid trudging out to the barn 3X/day with litter if I collect and hold it in a small trash can in the un-heated and thoroughly below-freezing wood room.) Trash is something that I've given a lot of thought to. Not sexy, but essential to a well-working kitchen and house, IMO. Family tradition in our house allows certain things like individual apple cores, peach pits and pistachio nut shells to be heaved out open windows into the gardens below if generated in rooms without compost containers. For some reason this does NOT apply to banana peels. L....See More- 8 years ago
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